We have covered Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube but if you want to run an effective online social media marketing plan your going to have to make sure you cover more bases than just the three. Here are some of the other key social sites and local directories that our social media marketing team can optimize for your business:
LinkedIn is a business related social networking site that is growing fast. Quantcast reports Linkedin has 21.4 million monthly unique U.S. visitors and 47.6 million globally.
Flickr is an image and video social networking site with billions of posts a year and is huge player on mobile apps.
Digg is a social news site where users can submit news, links, and websites.
Merchant Circle is a local business and local customer networking site with social media tools and the ability of reviews/ratings. Merchant Circle reported in 2010 they have over one million users.
nuAlerts is a local business and chamber of commerce networking site that features businesses news and promotions in wide spread news letters and on their home page.
Google Buzz is a social networking and messaging tool incorporated into users Gmail accounts. Very much like Twitter you can share short messages, links, photos, and videos. Buzz also syncs with your other social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr.
Now Google came out with the plus one feature which will allow buzz users to “+1” websites (similar to Facebook’s “like”), links, and listings which will show in their contacts and followers relative search results.
Google Places or Google Maps Formally known as Google Local is Google’s place for local businesses. Google Places listings now show in organic search results as well as in the “maps” selection. Google Places allows business to post images, videos, descriptions, maps, offers, public transit, hours, parking, and specialties. This is also a place for customers to write reviews and rate businesses as well. Google Places is also widely used on mobile devices.
Yelp is almost a mix between a local business directory site such as Google Places or CitySearch and a social networking site like Facebook. For businesses they can have their business listing which can feature images, offers, announcements, bios, descriptions, and hours. For users/customers they can review businesses, check-in to businesses, give tips for businesses and network with other Yelp users.
Yahoo Local similar to Google Places is a local business directory site. Businesses can feature a listing which will appear in search results that will showcase images, descriptions, hours, and reviews/ratings from Yahoo users.
Bing Local again just like Yahoo Local and Google Places it is a local business directory tool featured in Bing with very similar features. Listings show in local selection and in organic search results. Now with Bing’s social search campaign when a particular business or Bing business listing has more Facebook likes it will improve its search rankings and feature how many people like the business and who if any of your friends do as well.
The social media sites above are just some of what we may consider to be the more popular ones but the SEOPRO’s do not stop their. We feature your business, optimize, and maintain many more including but not limited to Thumbtack, HotFrog, Tumbler, Kudzu, Shop Local, YP, InsiderPages, and YellowBot.
